Although many of us on Corral Canyon Road have been trying for years to get a light installed at the intersection of Corral Canyon and PCH to no avail, suddenly, a new traffic light appears at Zumirez, which, by comparison, hardly needs a light at all. Meanwhile Corral Canyon Road remains a serious hazard to both vehicle traffic and pedestrians.
Corral Canyon Road is the only intersection with PCH from Santa Monica to Port Hueneme with no traffic light where there is a busy restaurant at the corner and where there is a gas station at the corner. The three-way intersection allows left turns from two directions, right turns from two directions and U-turns from two directions, causing chaos and long waits. Corral Canyon Road is the only entrance to not one but two popular national recreation areas.
Many pedestrians must cross PCH at or near the intersection, where there is a bus stop, despite the lack of a light or a pedestrian crosswalk. In fact, there is no pedestrian crosswalk or light for two miles in either direction, allowing PCH traffic to build up.
There is a busy beach adjacent to PCH where parking is permitted nearby on both sides of the freeway, which means beachgoers parking on the northbound side must cross PCH to get to the beach. In the summer it is not unusual to have to wait in excess of 10 minutes to make a left turn onto PCH.
There have been several pedestrian deaths and many collisions at or near this intersection. My husband was injured and had his car totaled when he was turning left from PCH into Corral Canyon Road although he had the right-of-way. Drivers fail to understand who has the right-of-way there.
The intersection is the only place that RVs turning out of a nearby busy RV park can make a U-turn. Corral Canyon Road is the only access into Corral Canyon where hundreds of people live in two large residential developments. There is no other way we can enter or leave Corral Canyon yet we must take our lives in our hands every time we access or leave our neighborhoods.
Meanwhile we now have a light at Zumirez, which has no gas station or restaurant on its corners, no businesses except for a small real estate office, is not adjacent to a beach, does not allow U-turns, has no nearby parking on PCH, is not the entrance to recreation areas and is not the only access to nearby residential areas.
Do the people at Caltrans have even one brain among them?
Lois Lyons